NEWSFLASH

5 ZAMBOANGA BOMBING SUSPECTS
ARRESTED

MANILA, October 23, 2002
(STAR) By Jaime Laude - Police arrested yesterday five suspects in the
three terrorist bombings in Zamboanga City that have killed an American
soldier, a Philippine Marine and at least 10 other people since Oct. 2.

The suspects will reportedly be flown
to Manila today to be presented to President Arroyo and Philippine National
Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

Police sources said the five suspects
are members of the Abu Sayyaf.

Details of the arrest are not yet
known but investigators are said to have a "very strong case"
against the suspects.

The first terrorist bombing occurred
in a restaurant in Zamboanga City’s Malagutay district last Oct. 2, killing
an American serviceman and three Filipino civilians.

In the second attack, seven people
were killed and 150 wounded when a powerful blast ripped through two department
stores on Oct. 17 in the city’s commercial center.

Last Sunday night, a Philippine Marine
was killed and 18 people were wounded after a bomb exploded in front of
Fort Pilar, a Catholic shrine in Zamboanga City.

Earlier yesterday, Ebdane said police
would arrest "within 24 hours" five suspects in the Zamboanga
City bombings.

"We have identified them but
we still have to arrest them," he told the Federation of Filipino-Chinese
Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Binondo, Manila.

Zamboanga City police said the chemical
used in the Fort Pilar bombing was similar to the one used in the attack
on a restaurant in Malagutay.

Chief Inspector Antonio Clarito,
operations chief of Zamboanga City police, said bomb experts are examining
the shrapnel found at the scene to detect the type of explosives used to
make the bomb.

The bomb that exploded in Malagutay
weighed around a kilo and contained "brownish" explosive which
could be a concoction of gunpowder and TNT, police said.

Meanwhile, police are looking at
the possibility that the Abu Sayyaf, Moro Islamic Liberation Front and
former members of the Moro National Liberation Front are behind the spate
of bombings in Zamboanga City and Metro Manila.

"These (bombings) were launched
when the government has an offensive against terrorist groups," said
a military official, who asked not to be named.

On the other hand, police sources
said the bombers might be getting support from foreign terrorist groups
like al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah.

"There is a pattern that we
see and we are trying to establish these with the series of explosions
to the events and other incidents that happened in Southern Mindanao and
Metro Manila," sources said.–Jaime Laude, Mike Frialde, Roel Pareño,
Christina Mendez, Marvin Sy